" It is really a big political stunt, playing on the ignorance of an ill-informed electorate and a clever, Teflon-clad State Premier "
'All happening very quickly': Tesla battery sends a jolt through energy markets
Critics have quibbled at the battery's size, highlighting that alone it could only supply perhaps 30,000 homes for an hour or so, at a cost guessed at $US50 million ($64 million).
But such figures ignore the many benefits – including supporting the security of the grid – that are only beginning to be understood.
"The battery has been dispatched on multiple occasions for both energy and FCAS," a spokesman for the the Australian Energy Market Operator tells Fairfax.
For December, "the battery was dispatched for energy on over 380 separate five-minute dispatch intervals, and enabled on over 4600 separate dispatch intervals in one or more FCAS markets", he said. 'Significant' savings
The SA government also spruiks the benefits.
"It is difficult to determine price trends at this early stage, however the battery has been active in the Raise and Lower Regulation Frequency Control and Ancillary Services [R-FCAS] markets since commissioning," a SA government spokesman tells Fairfax.
"The cost of Raise and Lower R-FCAS in SA in December 2016 was $502,320, compared with just $39,661 in December 2017, following the operation of the battery," he said.
"In recent times FCAS services have cost South Australians about $50 million each year," he says. "The battery is expected to significantly reduce the cost."
According to Mr McConnell, the battery dispatched about 2.5 gigawatt-hours of electricity while consuming about 3 gigawatt-hours, representing a round-trip efficiency of about 80 per cent.
